Since before the Consumer Electronics Show in January, there have been whispers of the third Galaxy S phone from Samsung. Both internationally and domestically, the Galaxy S and Galaxy S2 phones have seen incredible popularity, which has only increased the anticipation for the Galaxy S3. At long last, Samsung sent out invitations to the launch event for the Galaxy S3 scheduled for May 3. Unfortunately, despite months of rumors, guesses, false leaks, and speculation on a scale that compares only with an iPhone launch, there’s still very little confirmed about this device. We do have a ton of rumors to sort through though.

Physical buttons or ICS buttons?

Every version of a Galaxy S device is a little different. The International versions, for example, have always had an oddly shaped physical button in the center of the bottom, where the domestic versions have had soft buttons like most every other Android phone. The Samsung Galaxy S3 comes to us with Android 4.0 pre-loaded, which would include the possibility for the device to have software buttons like the ones shown on the Galaxy Nexus.

Google originally implemented the software buttons on Android 4.0 in an attempt to exert some control in the way that Android devices were being made. Right now, if you take any four Android devices and set them side by side, there stands a good chance that the layout for the soft keys is different across those all of them.

Samsung, being the manufacturer of the Galaxy Nexus, would be no stranger to the software button design, but aside from Asus no other manufacturer has followed Google’s design cues. The decision to use the space for software keys verses soft buttons or a physical button has everything to do with how large the screen is. If Samsung goes the way of software buttons, there wouldn’t be an international version with a physical button.If the Galaxy S3 comes with software buttons, the popularity of the device would certainly push the other Android manufacturers to follow suit. As of right now, neither HTC, Motorola, nor Sony seem to have any plans to release devices with software buttons.

Will we finally see some Exynos?

Samsung has had their own chips for some time now. The Exynos line of processors appear to be powerhouses on paper, but so far Samsung has seen fit to put them in very few devices. All of the chipset manufacturers are currently engaged in the race to make a quad-core chipset with an LTE radio built in, and if the rumors are true that Samsung has done exactly that in the Galaxy S3. This would give the device a serious advantage on any of the LTE networks in the world.

The rumor so far is that the Exynos chip in the Galaxy S3 will be a quad-core Cortex A9 chipset with LTE. This isn’t quite as fast as the Cortex A15 chipsets, but in this race LTE is king.

We won’t get into the obvious battery strain involved in this decision, if it is true, and instead focus on the positives. The rumor-mongers of the world are speculating that this move is an attempt to get a quad-core LTE phone on the market before Apple. Considering that Apple didn’t even bother to put a quad-core LTE chipset in the new iPad, the notion that this move is to try and one over on Apple is doubtful, but it will certainly put Samsung even further out in front of the other Android manufacturers. LTE would mean that it could potentially be available on three of the four US networks, with a chipset that supports T-Mobile’s AWS bands thrown in as well.

What we would like to see

There has not been any rumors on these select topics, but I think the Samsung Galaxy S3 would really benefit from coming to the table with a couple of these features. I would like to see all of the versions of the Galaxy S3 have LTE on board and enabled. Samsung has had NFC in plenty of their devices already, so that’s not really a longshot. Bringing NFC into as many lives as possible would accelerate the evolution of that technology across the world.

I would like to see the device support inductive charging out of the box, but that is probably a pipe dream. Samsung has flirted with the technology before, where you could purchase the add-ons to devices that could support it. I’d like to see Samsung include the ability in the box, especially with the increasing likelihood that the Galaxy S3 will not have a user-replaceable battery. As these devices get thinner and thinner, it becomes harder to support those removable batteries. Samsung has held out the longest with these battery covers that almost peel off, but the ability to charge my device wirelessly would go a long way to convincing me that my battery doesn’t have to come out or be replaced.

Final Thoughts

The important thing to keep in mind is to take everything you see about the Samsung Galaxy S3 with a grain of thought. We’ve seen blogs shoot up overnight with the leak-of-the=century for this device a couple of times. It is an exciting thing to see, but also tends to lead to disappointment when it turns out that this phone really doesn’t grow legs and cook you bacon or answer your emails for you.

If even half of things we’ve heard about the Galaxy S3 are true, it will be an exciting device. Unless we see a truly credible leak beforehand, though, we’ll see you on May 3rd for the full story.